Jostyn Hernandez, spokesman for Maragos, said the comptroller’s office is weighing how to respond to a letter from Kaiman about employees’ wages. Six nonunion employees in Maragos’s office received wage increases in 2013, Hernandez said, but he stressed that the office’s staff has decreased from roughly 100 to 80 from 2010 and 2013, resulting in a net savings of $1.5 million to county taxpayers.

Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said the county executive “has agreed to a hiring freeze that maintains 7,300 employees” — a number slightly higher than the county’s current workforce — “which is necessary to maintain the services our residents depend upon.”

Neither the PBA nor CSEA were pleased that political appointees have received wage increases in recent years, while their members have not. Both unions have brought lawsuits against NIFA’s wage freeze.

James Carver, the PBA president, called it a “slap in the face to every hard-working employee in Nassau County.”

“We’re doing more with less,” Carver said. “The county executive has balanced the budget based on these wage freezes. To hear him sit there and articulate that his guys are doing more with less — so have our guys. Police officers put their lives on the line every day. And we have a contract that’s being violated.”

“… The police department is in a crisis situation with hiring,” he continued. “We’re at the lowest staff in 60 or 70 years. People are working overtime every day, and there’s burnout. [Mangano] should consider hiring public safety positions. He should sit down with the unions and figure out a long-term solution on how to fix the wage freeze.”